ORIGINAL POST: ITEM 1: The American Bankers Association's latest effort to kill financial reform is to raise millions of dollars through a new dark money group (like a secret SuperPAC) disguised as a purported social welfare organization to avoid disclosure laws but primarily designed to elect Senators who agree with their Bizarro-World narrative that (1) the financial collapse of 2008 was not their fault and (2) financial reform has gone too far. On Thursday, according to its website, the ABA board voted to establish "Financial Education and Advocacy Initiative Inc. -- a new nonprofit organization that will help strengthen the banking industry's voice in Washington. "This new organization will give us more firepower in our battle to protect the banking franchise," said ABA President and CEO Frank Keating." (The rest of the story is hidden behind a members' only wall.)

"The financial industry has so far kept a low profile in the 2012 campaign, in part because banks remain targets for both political parties for their role in the 2008 financial crisis. While Wall Street banks and their employees have given millions to presidential and congressional campaigns, some of the largest banks have stayed away from overt political activities like funding the parties’ conventions."

"ABA staff defended the organization’s choice of using nonprofit tax status to conduct its planned undisclosed campaign intervention activity by asserting that the group would spend 51 percent of its funds on public issue advocacy and 49 percent on electioneering, thus attempting to justify the group’s primary purpose as a social welfare organization rather than a political organization – despite the fact that such “other” activities are peripheral to the group’s stated primary objective: campaign intervention."

ITEM 2: As reported by colleagues at OMBWatch, industry opponents of financial reform joined by other powerful special interests are trying to sneak controversial legislation, S 3468, the Independent Agency Regulatory Analysis Act, "under the radar" and through the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee this month. A leading administrative law professor, Rena Steinzor, points out that one of the bill's lead sponsors, Senator Susan Collins (ME) was against the idea before she was for it. The bill would place all independent agencies -- which are independent for a reason and range from the Fed, SEC, CFPB and other bank regulators to the CPSC and FTC -- under the highly-politicized White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). The goal? Paralyze their efforts to enact fair marketplace protections. Watch our home page for a longer entry from my U.S. PIRG colleague, Public Health Advocate Nasima Hossain, on this.

ITEM 3: In other news, the California Reinvestment Coalition has a new report charging that -- despite a return to high profits -- the state's biggest banks are using outrageous bank fee increases to push households out of mainstream banking with the intent of capturing them with even more profitable prepaid card products that are much less advantageous to consumers. A separate new study from The Pew Center on the States explains that "Reloadable Prepaid Cards Risky Option for Consumers Compared to Checking Accounts."

And that's Friday's Financial Follies. Remember, in Washington, we don't have to make this stuff up.